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McKinsey holds an innovation competition every year; compelling evidence shows that most organizations can benefit from doing same. McKinsey & Company regularly holds an internal competition, the Innovation Olympics, in which our own teams bring their best business ideas to an internal competition. In the most recent cycle over 2,000 McKinsey colleagues competed, with the goal of creating a bottom-up innovation mechanism that surfaces great ideas and put them to work for our clients. In this episode, McKinsey innovation leader and senior partner Erik Roth speaks with our current winners about the process. Part of the team joins us—Iris Roelens, John Law-Lund, and Suryansh Soni—to describe how and why they decided to use machine learning to draw on McKinsey knowledge and create digital agents that could serve as virtual consultants. This is an edited transcript of their conversation. You can follow the series on your preferred podcast platform.See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Adopting AI remains a challenge for most, and the fact that the world of AI is advancing soincredibly rapidly doesn’t help. Nathaniel Whittemore aims to make both adoption andkeeping up with change a lot easier. He is the founder and CEO of Superintelligent, the AIenablement platform that offers interactive tutorials that provide practical AI education andclear paths to business solutions. And is also the host of the podcast, AI Daily Brief, thatseeks to keep its listeners up to date with AI as it evolves. In this episode of The CommittedInnovator, McKinsey innovation leaser and senior partner, Erik Roth, speaks with Whittemoreabout the intersection between Whittemore’s two companies, the challenges of adopting andscaling AI for enterprises, and what he sees in store for AI in 2026. This is an editedtranscript of their conversation. You can follow the series on your preferred podcast platform. Related content Taking fear out of innovationThe essentials of innovationReconfiguring work: Change management in the age of gen AI See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Miro founder and CEO Andrey Khusid discusses the inspiration behind what started as a digital whiteboard and has evolved to become an AI innovation workspace. Of the many challenges of innovation, enabling members of a team to share and capture their new ideas so they can build on them collaboratively, quickly, and easily is a perennial source of drag. The need to do so remotely inspired Miro founder and CEO Andrey Khusid to start the online whiteboard platform used for brainstorming, planning, and team collaboration. Today the company has evolved into an AI-driven innovation workspace. In this episode, McKinsey innovation leader Erik Roth speaks with Khusid about the problem Miro seeks to solve, the process of scaling the business, and what is next for the company in the age of generative and agentic AI.   Related reading: The eight essentials of innovation  Taking fear out of innovation Fear factor: Overcoming human barriers to innovation See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

The Ocean Cleanup's Boyan Slat discusses the promise and challenge of technological innovation at planetary scale. The problem of ocean pollution from plastic waste is growing and intractable, and can feel insurmountable to many consumers. For Dutch innovator Boyan Slat, however, not only is the problem solvable, it’s an imperative. In addition to harming habitats and wildlife, improperly discarded plastics can cause health problems for humans. The founder and CEO of Rotterdam-based The Ocean Cleanup, Slat seeks to both clean up the worst of plastic pollution in oceans, and to stop the flow of plastics from rivers into oceans. McKinsey innovation leader Erik Roth speaks with Slat about the challenges of starting and evolving The Ocean Cleanup, how the organization has found success, and what it takes to continue the effort. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

In this episode of The Committed Innovator, we talk with John McDonald, the founder and CEO of Mercer Street Hospitality, which owns Lure Fishbar in New York City and Chicago, among other restaurants and bars. McDonald spoke with McKinsey Senior Partner and innovation leader Erik Roth about maintaining success and equilibrium in the notoriously difficult hospitality industry. Related insights: What’s on the menu? Revenue growth techniques for restaurants Cooking up extraordinary growth for restaurants during a downturn Taking fear out of innovation How to take the measure of innovation Fielding high-performing innovation teams Explore our collection of Committed Innovator episode transcripts on McKinsey.com: Strategic Growth & Innovation  See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

McKinsey innovation leader Erik Roth speaks with Jelena Joffe Weil, the founder and worldwide leader of the Venture Innovation program at AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing arm, about how AWS works to close the gap between innovation and go to market for start-ups and large enterprises. The global hyperscaler is known for helping businesses grow and scale rapidly, but it also helps start-ups and established enterprises find each other to engage in open, or collaborative, innovation. Related insights: Driving innovation with generative AI Taking fear out of innovation How to take the measure of innovation Fielding high-performing innovation teams Explore our collection of Committed Innovator episode transcripts on McKinsey.com: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/inside-the-strategy-room-podcast/strategic-growth-and-innovation Discover our latest insights and join more than 92,000 influential professionals who are part of our LinkedIn community: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/mckinsey-strategy-&-corporate-finance See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

In this episode of The Committed Innovator, McKinsey innovation leader Erik Roth speaks with the founder, president, and medical director of the Child Mind Institute in New York City, Dr. Harold Koplewicz. At a time of increasing concerns globally about child and adolescent mental health, the institute is working to use advanced imaging technologies and AI to help revolutionize diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric illness, and psychological and learning disorders.  See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

McKinsey innovation leader Erik Roth speaks with Shiprocket cofounder and CEO Saahil Goel about how he built his e-commerce logistics company into a highly successful platform that is helping launch new entrepreneurs all over India. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Rapid technological innovation heightens opportunity for investors. Serial entrepreneur and investor Wes Nichols shares the factors he looks for in but choosing the right start-ups and entrepreneurs to back. Nichols is best known for starting MarketShare, the marketing resource allocation software solution. Today he is a partner at March Capital, the growth-stage venture capital firm that focuses on enterprise technology companies. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Innovation in online gaming requires keeping up with a broad mix of changes, including digital advances, audience desires, and artistic trends. In this episode of The Committed Innovator podcast, McKinsey innovation expert Erik Roth talks with Mihir Vaidya, the chief strategy officer of Electronic Arts, about these unique aspects of innovating in the gaming industry.   See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Innovation in a not-for-profit context involves measuring success in terms of returns on mission, rather than returns to shareholders. In this episode of The Committed Innovator podcast, McKinsey innovation expert Erik Roth talks with Sajit Joseph, the chief innovation officer of the American Red Cross, about how the 142-year-old institution began and carries out its innovation journey.Explore other episodes of The Committed Innovator: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/inside-the-strategy-room-podcast/innovation See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

In this episode of The Committed Innovator, Major League Baseball’s Chief Operating and Strategy Officer Chris Marinak speaks with McKinsey innovation leader Erik Roth about how the league is using fan feedback, experimentation, and data to change a game steeped in tradition and culture to reach the next generation of fans. This season, MLB implemented rules changes that fundamentally altered the pace and action of the game and continues to embrace innovation and technology to improve the game and the overall fan experience. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/inside-the-strategy-room-podcast/innovation See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

The e-commerce platform’s president, Harley Finkelstein, talks about the changing online retailing landscape. Even e-commerce platforms that help disrupt retail need to keep innovating. In this episode of The Committed Innovator podcast, McKinsey innovation expert Erik Roth talks with Shopify president Harley Finkelstein about how his company keeps the creativity flowing. See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

PepsiCo design chief Mauro Porcini talks about the role of humanity and authenticity in driving innovation. Innovation requires commitment. In this episode of The Committed Innovator podcast, McKinsey innovation expert Erik Roth talks with PepsiCo senior vice president and chief design officer Mauro Porcini about how design thinking can help create that commitment and free people to innovate. Mauro's recently published book, The Human Side of Innovation: The Power of People in Love with People describes the power of design to drive sustainable and inclusive growth by unleashing people’s natural innovative tendencies.  See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information

Successful innovators tend to follow certain practices. In this episode of The Committed Innovator podcast, McKinsey innovation expert Erik Roth talks with our global Strategy & Corporate Finance Practice communications director, Sean Brown, about the building blocks of innovation and how they help drive sustainable and inclusive growth.  See www.mckinsey.com/privacy-policy for privacy information